Minnesota Wild fall 2-1 to Blue Jackets in shootout

Minnesota Wild's Nate Prosser, center, gets squeezed into the net by Columbus Blue Jackets' Artem Anisimov as Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper, left, looks on in the first period Saturday in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Three fast-paced periods, overtime and 62 combined shots before a shootout decided by video review.

For a pedestrian 2-1 final score, Saturday night's clash between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center packed one heck of a wallop.

The entertainment ended with the victorious Blue Jackets skating off with two points while the Wild gnashed their teeth over missed scoring chances and a goaltending nemesis.

Minnesota's fate was decided by one goal for the sixth straight game and 11th time in its past 12 games. This defeat concluded a four-game homestand that netted just five points (1-0-3) as the Wild travel east for three games against the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils.

The Wild had two chances to bury Columbus after Sergei Bobrovsky yielded the first two goals of the shootout to Zach Parise and Mikko Koivu. But Bobrovsky denied Matt Moulson and Jason Pominville to keep the Blue Jackets alive.

Darcy Kuemper stopped Cam Atkinson but was beaten three straight times by Artem Anisimov, Mark Letestu and Ryan Johansen.

Johansen lost the puck bearing down but pulled it back to his forehand and swept it into the left corner to win the shootout 3-2.

Officials initially disallowed the goal, assuming Kuemper poke-checked the puck from Johansen. But replays showed Kuemper did not touch the puck and Johnson regained control before firing it home, even though the goaltender disagreed.

"I guess it's kind of a gray area on the ruling," Kuemper said. "I mean, I guess when you poke it, it doesn't count as a shot or whatever, so I guess that's what they decided. It is what it is. Bottom line, I had two chances before that to finish it."

Kuemper finished with 28 saves.

"It's disappointing," said Wild coach Mike Yeo. "You'd certainly like to close out the game at that point. But at the same time what I don't want is Kuemps to start thinking about that as a negative. I thought he played really well. We had an opportunity, and we missed it."

Bobrovsky was Columbus' hero. He stopped 31 of 32 shots, several from point-blank range, and was aided by goalposts that ricocheted shots by Pominville and Clayton Stoner.

"It's tough because it paints a bad picture for a good game," Yeo said. "We can't sit here and let a shootout affect how we feel about the way that we're playing the game. We gave ourselves a really good chance to win, and that's what we have to do night after night."

It was an up-tempo, hard-hitting game between evenly matched teams that carried a playoff atmosphere. Referees Greg Kimmerly and Kelly Sutherland swallowed their whistles and let the players decide this late-season matchup between 2000-01 expansionists.

Pominville scored his team-leading 25th goal to finally break the Bobrovsky spell at 3:12 of the third period.

Ryan Suter's three-line feed skipped past Parise, who chased the puck down behind the Blue Jackets' goal. He fed a streaking Pominville in the right circle and the game was tied 1-1.

Shots were even 24-24 entering the third period, but it was Columbus that claimed the one-goal lead with 21.6 seconds remaining in the second.

It was a harmless shot. Defenseman Dalton Prout was backpedaling to the blue line when the puck wound its way onto his stick. He unloaded a slap shot that sailed through traffic and past a stunned-looking Kuemper.

The Wild earned a point for the 15th time in their past 17 games but ended up leaving three on the table capping a four-game homestand in which they lost three shootouts, including a blown 3-0 lead to Edmonton.

"It's a weird, yeah, we did lose three of four," Parise said. "But those are big points for us at the same time, so there's a couple ways to look at it. Unfortunately, it's still a loss. You still have that losing feeling. It's too bad because we played pretty decent in a few of the games we lost."